View full sizeAaron Houston/For The Star-LedgerTony and Liz Mele of the Parlin section of Sayreville are credited with saving the life of a driver involved in a fiery crash on Bordentown Avenue in Sayreville. Behind the couple is the curve where the accident occurred.

SAYREVILLE — Tony and Liz Mele were driving west along a rain-slickened road in Sayreville when a white Oldsmobile SUV, traveling in the opposite direction, strayed across the center line. The couple watched, horrified, as the Olds, not more than 20 yards in front of them, careened head-on into a little red Nissan.

As Tony Mele, 49, hit the brakes and skidded to a stop, the Nissan burst into flames. Inside, 22-year-old Nicholas Colella was dazed and trapped, but alive.

The Meles, from Sayreville, jumped out and ran toward the burning car, which had been pushed to the side of the road in Thursday's crash.

"I got to pull you out," Tony Mele told the driver, whose feet were pinned beneath the crushed front of his car. Finally, the couple yanked Colella out, pulling his feet from his shoes.

"People were yelling, saying the car’s going to explode, you got to get out," Tony Mele recalled.

Sayreville Police Dept.This photo provided by the Sayreville Police Department shows a red Nissan burning after being involved in a collision on Bordentown Avenue near the Washington Horse Stables on Thursday, Jan. 26.

Liz Mele, 47, said she never stopped to think about the flames.

"What were we going to do, stand there with him in the burning car? That’s not correct. That’s not Godly," she said. "Our first priority was this was a person. You’ve got to get him out."

As the Meles carried Colella to safety, the tires on the young man’s car exploded from the heat and flames.

Sitting in the grass, Colella gave the Meles his father’s phone number. Daniel Colella arrived at the scene a short time later.

Google MapsNicholas Colella, 22, of Spotswood, was driving west on Bordentown Road in Sayreville about 4 p.m. Thursday when his car was struck by a car traveling east that crossed over the center line into the westbound lane, Sayreville police Sgt. David Lasko said.

The accident happened about 4 p.m. Thursday, at a bend in the road near the Washington Horse Stables, as Colella, who lives in Spotswood, was driving west on Bordentown Avenue.

Police Sgt. David Lasko said Gabriella Vanblug, 40, of Matawan, was driving east when she drifted into oncoming traffic and struck Colella’s car. She was uninjured, according to Lasko.

Colella was taken by ambulance to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where he was treated for bruises and cuts.